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1 Comparing the Effectiveness of School-Based and Community-Based Delivery of an Emotional Regulation Skills Program for Children Anne Westhues, Alice Schmidt Hanbidge, Robert Gebotys, and Angela Hammond The purpose of this study was to determine whether a school-based emotion regulation group program or a community-based emotion regulation group program for children in grades one through six identified as at risk for emotional and behavioral problems is most effective in improving student functioning. Outcome measures included emotional awareness, emotional coping, expression management, self-efficacy with regard to managing emotions, selfesteem, academic performance, and behavioral infractions within the school system. Longitudinal data were analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA and showed that the programs were equally effective in teaching children emotion regulation skills. For the most part, this learning was sustained at oneyear and two-year follow-ups. Keywords: children; community-based delivery; emotion regulation; evaluation: program effectiveness: school-based delivery Research shows that well-developed emotion regulation skills appear to be a protective factor for children against outcomes such as poor social Anne Westhues is professor on the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. Alice Schmidt Hanbidge is a doctoral student in social work at Wilfrid Laurier University and is youth program coordinator at K-W Counselling Services. Robert Gebotys is associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. Angela Hammond is STEAM coordinator and researcher at K-W Counselling Services. Please address all correspondence to Anne Westhues. Faculty of Social Work, Wilfrid Laurier University, 120 Duke Street West. Kitchener. Ontario. Canada N2H 3W8; tel.: x5222: fax: ; The authors Would like to express their appreciation for the Trillium Grant from the Government of Ontario that made this research possible School Social Work Journal, Vol. 34, No. 1. September 2009

2 Effectiveness of Emotional Regulation Skills Program 75 functioning (Izard, Fine, Schultz, Mostow, & Ackerman, 2001; Shields et al., 2001; Smith, 2001); poor academic achievement (Eisenberg et al., 1997; Greenberg, Kusche, Cook, & Quamma, 1995; Gumora & Arsenio, 2002; Trentacosta & Izard, 2007; Wentzel & Wigfield, 1998); psychological maladjustment, including the negative sequelae of child maltreatment, marital conflict, and economic disadvantage (Casey, 1996; Cicchetti, Ackerman, & Izard, 1995; Eisenberg et al., 1996; Shields & Cicchetti, 2001; Zeman, Shipman, & Suveg, 2002); and even poor physical health (Salovey, Rothman, Detweiler, & Steward, 2000). This knowledge has prompted teachers, mental health workers, and researchers to explore how to most effectively improve the emotion regulation skills of at-risk children (Committee for Children, 2002; Greenberg et al., 1995; Izard et al.; Shure, 1993; Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 1995). Programs that teach children emotion regulation skills have become more salient in recent years as governments in Canada and the United States introduced codes of conduct (e.g., Ontario Ministry of Education, 2000) and zero-tolerance policies (Essex, 2001; Gorman & Pauken, 2003; Skiba & Peterson, 2000; Sprague & Walker, 2000) with the intention of producing safe, harassment-free school environments for children and teachers. Such policies mean that children who are seen to have behavior problems are now more likely to be suspended from school, even in the earlier elementary grades. Between 15 percent and 20 percent of children are thought to have sufficiently serious behavior problems that they might profit from participating in a psycho-educational program, whether the program objectives are framed as increasing social skills, conflict resolution skills, problem solving skills, anger management, or emotion regulation skills or as reducing bullying or violence (Sprague & Walker; Wadell & Shepherd, 2002). Offering psycho-educational programs may, therefore, reduce the number of children who are sanctioned under zero-tolerance policies. Evidence is beginning to amass that supports the effectiveness of school-based delivery of mental health services (Greenberg, Domitrovich, & Bumbarger, 2001; Hoagwood & Erwin, 1997; Hunter, 2004) and the greater accessibility of school-based mental health programs (Paternite, 2004). School-based programs may also have the benefit of reducing stigma for children who use mental health services (Robinson, 2004). Little is known about the comparative effectiveness of community-based and school-based interventions, however. Only one study was identified that compared the outcomes of the same intervention delivered both within schools and at a community-based central clinic, and this intervention was one-on-one counseling (Armbruster & Lichtman, 1999).

3 76 School Social Work Journal None were identified that compared the effectiveness of school-based and community-based delivery of group programs for children identified as at risk (indicated) for mental health problems, and more specifically in need of enhanced emotion regulation skills. This study proposes to address that gap by determining whether a school-based emotion regulation group intervention or a community-based emotion regulation group intervention is most effective in increasing student functioning in relation to emotional awareness, emotional coping, expression management, self-efficacy with regard to managing emotions, self-esteem, and academic performance and in reducing behaviors that are considered infractions within the school system. Theoretical Framework The term emotion regulation is sometimes used interchangeably in the literature with related constructs, such as coping, defenses, mood regulation, or affect regulation. tn this study, it is defined as "the processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they experience them, and how they experience and express these emotions" (Gross, 1998, p. 275). Emotion regulation can be thought of as a diverse set of skills rather than a single behavioral entity. The purpose of these skills is to maintain a level of arousal that supports adaptive behavior (Cicchetti, Ganiban, & Barnett. 1991). Unlike prevention programs that focus on coping or building defenses to meet emotional challenges, emotion regulation programs focus on the modulation of positive emotions like pride in accomplishment and joy, as well as negative emotions like sadness or anger (Izard, 2002). Emotions are seen to be problematic when they impede an individual's efforts to realize his or her goals (Thompson, 1994), whether the goals are making friends, succeeding academically, or getting along within the family. Three processes are central to emotion regulation: emotional awareness or the ability to identify one's internal emotional experiences and those of others; emotional coping, the strategies used to manage emotional experiences in a constructive manner; and expression management, the inhibition of exaggerated displays of either negative or positive emotion (Zeman et al ). The purpose of emotion regulation programs is to make these processes conscious, so the individual child is better able to manage his or her emotions in positive ways and to avoid the negative outcomes associated with dysregulation. Although many programs address emotional awareness, or focus on emotional coping through the development of specific skills like problem solving, few address all three aspects of emotion regulation (Izard, 2002).

4 Effectiveness of Emotional Regulation Skills Program 77 Effectiveness of School-Based Programs It is generally acknowledged that the school system has become the de facto mental health system for children, with 75 percent of services provided through schools (Hoagwood & Erwin, 1997; Robinson, 2004). A narrative review of school-based mental health programs for children (Hoagwood & Erwin) and two recent systematic reviews on school-based information processing interventions related to aggressive behavior (Wilson & Lipsey, 2006a, 2006b) suggest that, for the most part, school-based mental health interventions are effective. Hoagwood and Erwin conclude that programs based on three modes of intervention are all likely to meet their goals of enhanced functioning and a reduction in problem behaviors: cognitive-behavioral, social skills, and teacher consultation. Wilson and Lipsey's (2006a, 2006b) reviews of seventy-three universal (offered to all children in a class or school) and forty-seven indicated (for children who have exhibited problem behaviors) or selective (for children who have not exhibited problem behaviors but who are assessed as likely to benefit from the program, e.g., anxious or shy children) school-based information processing programs showed that the overall random effects mean was 0.21 (p <.001) for the universal programs. This finding indicates that participants in the universal treatment groups had significantly lower aggressive and disruptive behavior than comparison group members at posttest, though the effects would be considered small. The four significant predictors of effect size were socioeconomic status (more effective with low socioeconomic status children), routine practice (smaller effects than demonstration projects), frequency of sessions (the more sessions, the higher the effects), and implementation quality (implementations without difficulties gave better outcomes). For the indicated and selective programs, overall effect size was similar at 0.26, which was also significant. No significant differences in effectiveness of indicated and selective programs were found between studies with experimental and quasi-experimental designs or by mode of treatment (anger control, social problem solving, perspective taking, cognitive-behavioral). Two significant differences were found, however: interventions were more effective with regular education students than special-education students, and programs in which graduate students delivered services tended to be less effective than those in which researchers or teachers delivered them. Given the dearth of research comparing school- and communitybased programs, this study provides useful new knowledge for school and mental health staff implementing emotion management programs and for policy makers about whether to offer emotion management programs,

5 78 School Social Work Journal and if so whether resources would most appropriately be allocated to school- or community-based programs. Program Description First offered in 1999, the community (Temper Taming) and schoolbased (Skills and Tools for Emotions Awareness and Management or STEAM) variations of the emotion regulation program in which children in this study participated are designed to assist children who have been identified by their parents or teachers as experiencing difficulty managing their emotions. The program is a proactive response to the behavioral problems identified in schools and attempts to help children become more successful in managing their behavior in school and at home. The curriculum focuses on enriching emotions vocabulary and awareness of emotions through identifying body cues and thoughts, as well as teaching assertive decision making and problem solving skills. Both versions of the program are offered in weekly group sessions of ninety minutes that are co-facilitated by a social worker and a social work intern who receives eighteen hours of training, ongoing supervision, and the support of welldeveloped manuals outlining curriculum content and process. The two versions of the program also offer sessions to inform parents about what is being taught in the groups and to train them to help their children with the homework assigned and to coach the children to use the skills they have learned at home. The program for primary (grades one through three) and junior (grades four through six) participants is adjusted to address their developmental differences in regard to learning. The school-based program runs for twelve weeks and the communitybased program for eight weeks. The STEAM and Temper Taming interventions incorporate teaching about all three aspects of emotion regulation identified previously. They are preventative programs for children who have begun to have problems discussing their emotions or who have limited control over their emotions, which leads to negative consequences, such as detentions at school. The first half of each program focuses on feeling development. teaching children how to recognize and label how they feel and what is happening in their bodies (e.g., heart pumping fast). This teaching helps the children to connect their feelings with their body actions. The program also emphasizes calming strategies when the children have unpleasant feelings (e.g., frustration, jealousy, anger, and sadness). The ability to detect and label emotion signals is necessary in a successful emotions program. The program also focuses on taking responsibility for

6 Effectiveness of Emotional Regulation Skills Program 79 your own actions and how your emotions can affect how others respond. Children cannot control what others say or do to them, although they can control how they respond to that other person, and hopefully the situation ends positively. The program teaches that there are some external factors that children have no control over and in these situations they need to problem solve to the best of their ability. Research Question and Hypotheses This study answers the following question: is school- or communitybased delivery of a small group program to teach emotion regulation skills more effective in enhancing functional skills and reducing disruptive behaviors for children in grades one through six? The following are hypothesized: L. Children who participate in either a school- or community-based delivery of an emotion regulation program will demonstrate significant increases in emotional awareness, emotional coping, expression maniigement, self-esteem, self-efficacy with regard to managing emotions, and academic performance between pretest and posttest. 2. Only some of these changes will be sustained one year and two years after completion of the program. 3. The school-based intervention will be as effective as the communitybased intervention in achieving these outcomes, and both will be more effective than the comparison, group. Methodology Research Design A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest outcome evaluation with followups at one year and two years was designed for this study. Data were collected from children and their parents. The two intervention groups were compared at pretest, posttest, one-year follow-up, and two-year follow-up. A comparison group was also created for the pretest and posttest period consisting of children referred to the school-based program who were placed on a wait list because of insufficient space. These children were offered the opportunity to participate in the program the following year, and most took it, so they were not able to continue as a comparison group in the longitudinal study. Table 1 summarizes the design.

7 80 School Social Work Journal Table 1. Research Design Pretest Posttest One year Two year School-based intervention 0 X Community-based intervention 0 X Comparison group (wait list) 0 0 Representatives of the collaborating organizations served on an advisory committee that guided the research process. Teachers, principals, social workers, and previous child and parent participants guided the development of this program and refined the data collection procedures. Sample The sample was drawn from publicly funded schools in a community in southern Ontario and consisted of children in grades one through six, ninety of whom participated in the school-based program, fifty-one in the community-based program, and forty-three on the wait list who served as a comparison group. The parent form was completed by eightyone parents of children in the school-based program and forty-three parents of children in the community-based program at pretest. Children ranged in age from 6 to 12, with a mean of 8.8 years. A small majority (59.8%) were boys. Seventy-four children were in the primary group (grades one through three) and 110 in the junior group (grades four through six). There were no significant differences among the three groups in age. gender, or grade level. Data Collection Procedures Data collection was the responsibility of small group facilitators and a social work intern who served as the research coordinator. Children achieved a 96.7 percent response rate at pretest, 97.8 percent at posttest, percent at one-year follow-up, and 78.7 percent attwo-year followup. Response rates for parents were 87.9 percent at pretest, 93.6 percent at posttest, 86.5 percent at one-year follow-up, and 79.4 percent at twoyear follow-up. Measures Three self-report measures were used to collect data from children participating in the study: the Emotion Expression Scale for Children

8 Effectiveness of Emotional Regulation Skills Program 81 (Penza-Clyve & Zeman, 2002), the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (Coopersmith, 1981), and the child form, which was developed for the study. Assistants were available to read the questions to children who had difficulty reading them. Parents completed one self-administered instrument that was developed to assess their perception of the impact of the intervention, the parent form. Data were also collected from the school on infractions resulting in detentions or suspensions for children in the school-based intervention. Details on the psychometric properties of the instruments are summarized in table 2. Table 2. Psychometric Properties of Measurement Instrument Used Child Measures Emotion Expression Scale for Children Child form School infractions Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory Academic performance This 16-item self-report questionnaire that uses a 5-point Likert scale was administered to assess (lack of) emotional awareness and emotional expression (reluctance to express emotion) from the child's perspective. High internal consistency has been reported for both the emotional awareness factor (alpha =.83) and the emotional expression factor (alpha =.81) using a sample of 208 children ages 9-12 attending a public school serving a working-class small urban area. Testretest reliability was a moderate but acceptable.59 (awareness) and.56 (expression). Convergent validity was also demonstrated (Penza- Clyve & Zeman, 2002). The child form is a self-administered, 10-item questionnaire that was designed to assess the impact of the program. It measures emotional awareness (2 items), knowledge of emotional coping skills (2 items), emotional expression (3 items), and efficacy in managing emotions (2 items). The child form has face validity, but no other psychometric work has been done on this instrument. Information was compiled from the schools' information systems on the number of behavior infractions (e.g., physical violence, harassment), suspensions, and expulsions only for children participating in the school-based program. The 25-item short form of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was used to measure self-esteem. Psychometric information is more limited for the short form than for the longer form, but internal consistency, using the Kuder-Richardson reliability estimates, is reported as.74 for males and.71 for females (Coopersmith, 1981). A recent review of studies using the short form found the reliability to be.75 using the Kuder-Richardson and.68 using a test-retest reliability measure (Lane, White, & Henson, 2002). No results are reported on the validity of the short form, though the construct validity of the longer form has been confirmed using factor analysis (Coopersmith). This variable was measured by parent report that "the student is productive academically," a subjective assessment of how the child is performing at school.

9 82 School Social Work journal Parent Measures Parent form The parent form is a self-administered 1 1-item form that was designed to assess the impact of the program. It measures parent assessment of the child's emotional awareness (1 item), emotional expression (6"items), efficacy in managing emotions (1 item), academic performance (1 item), and parent involvement at school (1 item). It has face validity and good internal consistency on the items measuring emotional awareness and emotional expression (alpha =.70). Construct validity was assessed using a principal components factor analysis, and the predicted single factor was identified, with 48.4% of the variance explained. This questionnaire was administered at pretest (T1), posttest (T2), and each of 1 (T3) and 2 years (T4) after posttest. Parents were mailed the questionnaires:in the follow-up period. Results Hypothesis 1: Children who participate in either a school- or communitybased delivery of an emotion regulation program will demonstrate significant increases in emotional awareness, emotional coping, expression management, self-esteem, self-efficacy with regard to managing emotions, and academic performance between pretest and posttest. Paired t-tests were run to assess support for the first hypothesis, analyzing the data provided by children who participated in the school- and community-based interventions and by children on the wait list, who served as a comparison group. All children completed the child measures described in table 2, but only parents of children in the school- and community-based programs completed the parent form. Emotional awareness. Table 3 shows that there were three child measures of emotional awareness and one parent measure. The child measures included two questions on the child form: one asking the child to list eight feelings and another asking him or her to identify three body cues. The third child measure is the eight-item (lack of) emotional awareness subscale of the Emotion Expression Scale (Penza-Clyve & Zeman, 2002). The parent measure is item 1 on the parent form: "student recognizes different emotions in others." Possible responses were seldom, sometimes, usually, and always. Table 3 shows that children in both the school-based and communitybased interventions demonstrated a significant increase in the number of feelings they could identify between pretest and posttest. In addition, children in the community-based program showed a significant increase in the number of body cues they could identify that signaled they were experiencing strong emotions. The comparison group showed one signif-

11 84 School Social Work Journal Expression nianagetnent. Two measures of expression management were used: the (lack of) emotion expressiveness subscale (EE subscale) of the Emotion Expression Scale and a score calculated from six questions the parents answered about the child's expressiveness. The questions follow: (1) Is student able to express feelings in an appropriate way? (2) Does student interact appropriately in group settings? (3) Is student involved in conflict in the home? (4) Does student deal with daily conflict appropriately in the home? (5) Does student use emotion management language to solve conflict? and (6) Does student use problem solving strategies in home? No significant differences were found on the EE subscale for any of the groups at posttest, though parents of the children in both the school-based and community-based interventions reported significant improvements on expression management at this time. Parent data were not collected for the comparison students. Self-esteem. The short form of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem inventory was used to assess self-esteem with children in all three conditions. Significant increases in self-esteem were reported between pre- and posttest for participants in the school-based and community-based interventions. No significant difference was reported for the comparison group. Self-ejficacy. This concept was assessed using two questions on the child form: "When I get upset I can find ways to solve my problems" and "I can find ways to control mny temper." A score was calculated from the sum of these two responses to measure self-efficacy (range 2 to 10). No significant pre-post differences were reported for the school-based intervention, but they were reported for participants in the community-based intervention. The related concept of self-confidence with regard to managing emotions was assessed by asking parents to rate "student displays self-confidence about managing emotions at home." Parents of both the school-based participants and the community-based participants reported that their children were significantly more confident in managing emotions at posttest than at pretest. Academic performance. There were significant differences between pretest and posttest on parent report of academic productivity (i.e., parent assessment that the child was doing well academically given his or her capabilities) for the school-based intervention but not for the communitybased program.

12 Effectiveness of Emotional Regulation Skills Program 85 Hypothesis 2: Only some of these changes will be sustained one year and two years after completion of the program. One-way repeated measures ANOVAs were run to determine whether the significant within subjects' changes observed between pretest and posttest were maintained at one- and two-year follow-ups. Following Field's (2005) advice, a simple contrast was selected. When Mauchy's test indicated that the assumption of sphericity had been violated, the degrees of freedom were corrected using Greenhouse-Geiser estimates of sphericity. The authors were also interested in whether there were any sleeper effects (Gruder et al., 1978), that is, significant changes that did not occur at posttest but that appeared at one- or two-year follow-up. Findings from the ANOVA are summarized in table 4 for participants in the school-based intervention and in table 5 for the community-based intervention. Pretest to One-Year Follow-up Data were collected at posttest, one-year follow-up, and two-year follow-up on number of school suspensions for only the school-based program, so there were thirteen outcome measures for the school-based program participants and twelve for the community-based program participants. Table 4 shows that there were significant changes for the school-based participants on eight of the thirteen outcome measures between pretest and one-year follow-up: number of feelings identified, number of body cues identified, parent perception of the child's ability to identify others' emotions, number of calming activities, number of positive self-messages, parent report of child's emotional expressiveness, parent perception of child's confidence in managing emotions, and parent perception of whether child is academically productive. For community-based program participants, table 5 shows that there were significant changes on eight of the twelve outcomes between pretest and one-year follow-up: number of feelings identified, parent perception of the child's ability to identify others' emotions, number of positive selfmessages, parent report of child's emotional expressiveness, self-esteem, self-efficacy, parent perception of child's confidence in managing emotions, and parent perception of whether child is academically productive. Pretest to Two-Year Follow-up Table 4 shows that there were also significant changes for the schoolbased participants on eight of the thirteen outcome measures between pretest and two-year follow-up: number of feelings identified, number of

15 88 School Social Work Journal emotions, parent perception of child's self-confidence, and parent perception of whether child is academically productive. Hypothesis 3: The school-based intervention will be as effective as the comnuinity-based intervention in achieving these outcomes. No significant differences were found between the two versions of the program (school-based and community-based) on any of the outcome measures. Several analyses were completed. A mixed model analysis of variance was run using the two programs as the between subject factor and the time of assessment as the within subject factor. None of the main effects or interactions of factors for all outcomes were significant at alpha =.05. Logistic regressions were also run to try to predict program membership (school- or community-based) using the outcome measures. These logistic models were also not significant at alpha =.05. Discussion Three hypotheses were tested in this article. The data offer partial support for the first hypothesis that children in both the school-based and community-based interventions would demonstrate significant increases on emotion regulation outcomes between pretest and posttest. Children in the school-based program were reported to have made,significant gains at posttest on seven of the thirteen outcome measures. Each of the concepts of emotional awareness, emotional coping slklls, and expression management were represented in these outcomes, as well as self-esteem and parent reports of increased self-confidence in managing emotions and academic productivity. Children in the community-based intervention were found to have made significant gains on eight of the twelve outcome measures, two measuring the concept of emotional awareness, two the concept of emotional coping sildls, and one the concept of expression management. Significant change was also reported by children on selfesteem and self-efficacy with regard to managing emotions and by parents on their child's self-confidence. Children in the comparison group were found to have made a significant gain on one of the outcome measures-number of body cues they could report-which may have been a consequence of school-wide emotion regulation program activities, or may be a random finding. The second hypothesis (that only some of the significant changes would be sustained at one- and two-year follow-ups) was supported, though these findings were fairly stable at each data collection point. For school-based participants, changes were significant between pretest and each of posttest, one-year, and two-year follow-up for five outcome mea-

16 Effectiveness of Emotional Regulation Skills Program 89 sures: number of feelings identified, number of positive self-messages identified, parent report that the child was managing the expression of his or her emotions more positively, parent report of their child's increased self-confidence, and parent report that the child was more productive academically. Participants in the community-based version of the emotion regulation program reported the same findings at each of posttest, one-year, and two-year follow-up. In addition, they reported an increased feeling of efficacy in managing their emotions at each of these data collection points. This difference between the two modes of delivery is noteworthy. The school-based participants reported a significant increase in self-efficacy with regard to managing emotions only at twoyear follow-up, suggesting that gaining increased confidence in managing emotions was a slower process for them than for the communitybased participants. Related to this school-based finding is the finding that participants in the community-based intervention reported a significant increase in self-esteem at posttest and one-year follow-up, while participants in the school-based intervention reported significant changes in self-esteem only at posttest. It can only be conjectured why this difference was found. Parents of children in both programs are engaged in helping their children practice the skills they are taught. Parents in the school-based intervention learn about the skills by attending three parent sessions, one at the beginning of the program, one at midpoint, and one toward the final session. Parents in the community-based intervention, because they are bringing their child to the program sessions, are given a fifteen-minute review of what was taught at the end of each session. This more frequent review may mean that the community-based parents develop greater skill in reinforcing their child's efforts, and so the child feels more confident about what he or she has learned and more proud of his or her accomplishments, leading to a quicker increase in self-esteem. Given the importance of self-efficacy and self-esteem in accomplishing life goals more generally, as well as those related to the emotion regulation program, this difference in parent engagement deserves further exploration. Two variables for the school-based participants showed a sleeper effect (i.e., they were not significant at posttest, but they were at one-year follow-up). These were number of body cues identified and parent report that the child was more aware of other peoples' emotions. Parents of the community-based participants also reported increased awareness of the emotions of others at one-year follow-up but not at posttest. This finding suggests that these are more difficult skills to develop, and although children have learned to identify their own emotional state, they need more

17 90 School Social Work Journal practice before they can use the skills to develop insight into the emotions of others. No changes were observed on emotional awareness as measured by Penza-Clyve and.zeman's (2002) Emotion Expression Scale for Children for either the school-based or community-based program participants. This finding may be further evidence that development of emotional awareness requires more time than a twelve-week program. Concrete skills like identifying emotions or body cues can. be learned fairly readily, but reflecting on emotions and one's emotional awareness appears to require ongoing practice. The (lack of) expressiveness subscale of the Emotion Expression Scale for Children showed significant changes for the school-based intervention only at two-year follow-up. No significant changes were found for the community-based intervention using this measure. This difference suggests that the school-based delivery of the program has been more successful in.supporting children in talking about their feelings, though this is also a skill that requires time to develop. This finding may be particularly true in schools where school-wide emotion regulation activities are adopted in addition to a pullout group intervention. The question of what impacts there are on emotion regulation learning when a pullout intervention is nested within a school-wide intervention should be explored further. Although there are some differences in the impact of the school-based and community-based interventions, these findings led to the conclusion that there was support for the third hypothesis-that they were equally effective. The study of emotion and emotion regulation in children is still relatively new. One of the challenges in this area of inquiry is measuring emotion or emotion regulation in children, especially longitudinally because of the "continuous series of reorganizations within and across a variety of developmental domains" (Halberstadt & Parker, 2007, p. 380). Another is the variety of ways in which emotion-related concepts are being used and measured (Cole, Martin, & Dennis, 2004). Although significant changes,were found on a number of outcomes, the findings may indicate only partial support for the hypothesis that children would learn emotion regulation skills because of the measures selected in this study. The Penza-Clyve and Zeman Emotion Expression Scale, in particular, may not be as close a measure of what is being taught in the emotion regulation program evaluated as was thought. This study also has a number of design limitations that may have affected the findings. Most important is the lack of a control group beyond the posttest measurement. Ideally, children would be assigned randomly to the two conditions as well. Ethical considerations about pre-

18 Effectiveness of Emotional Regulation Skills Program 91 venting a child from accessing service make it difficult to imagine how a control or comparison group could be maintained longitudinally, however. A further limitation is the study's lack of data on the behavioral measure of school infractions for the community-based intervention. Disruptive behaviors at school have become increasingly common, and teachers are looking for positive ways to discourage them. The data from the school-based version of the program suggests that this intervention is one approach that can help achieve this goal. Further research is required to determine if that is true of the community-based delivery of the program as well. Finally, although the study's attrition rates are quite good for a study with a two-year follow-up, the findings may have been affected by differences in the children and parents who continued to participate in the study and those who did not. Summary and Conclusion Children who participated in either a school-based or a communitybased prevention program teaching emotion regulations skills demonstrated significant increases on about half of the measures used to assess emotion regulation skills in this study, while children in a comparison group in the first year of the study showed a significant positive change on only one outcome measure. Most of the effects observed at posttest were sustained one year and two years after the completion of the intervention. No significant differences in effectiveness were found between the schoolbased and community-based delivery of the program. These findings suggest that the emotion regulation program evaluated in this study does support children in learning emotion regulation skills. In addition, an important finding of this study for program development purposes is that school-based delivery of programs, which is both geographically and psychologically more accessible to many children than community-based delivery, appears to be just as effective in helping children develop emotion regulation skills as community-based interventions. References Armbruster, P., & Lichtman, J. (1999). Are school based mental health services effective? Evidence from 36 inner city schools. Community Mental Health Journal, 35(6), Casey, R. J. (1996). Emotional competence in children with externalizing and internalizing disorders. In M. Lewis & M. W. Sullivan (Eds.), Emotional development in atypical children (pp ). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

136 198 2004 2003 14 12 %13.2 17 %7.1 %9.6 3 32 9 Depression in childhood and adolescence is among the commonest and more disabling disorders. It has been reported that childhood depression ranges from

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